4DX Strategy

Balancing the workload of a career in education is not always easy. Much less balancing the workload while trying to implement change. It is easy, however, to get caught up in the “whirlwind” that prevents you from moving towards change. The whirlwind is the sizable amount of energy it takes to keep an organization at its current level of performance. It is the main threat to executing our goals. While this may keep everything on track, it never allows the opportunity for progress. The purpose of the four disciplines of execution strategy is to successfully respect the whirlwind to clear a path to implement change. For our organization, it is the change of turning our limited teacher profiles into ePortfolios that will benefit all educators and the organization. The following strategy is my plan for leading this change.

“So, start every change project with a clear and compelling statement of the goal you’re trying to achieve.

Measure your progress. Don’t leave it to intuition or hunches. Measure your measures by the behavior they influence. And finally, measure the right thing, and measure it frequently.” - Kerry Patterson

Influencer and 4DX

The Influencer Strategy that I created for our organization goes hand in hand with this 4DX plan. When creating this plan, I looked back on the influencer strategy often as it set the stage for developing this plan fully. The influencer strategy focuses more on behaviors and influence, while the 4DX plan provides a well-tested formula on how to make change happen. While the 4DX plan seems simplistic, it is far from it. It takes a significant amount of planning, and even more discipline with execution. The 4DX text describes this as “says easy, does hard” (Mcchesney et al., 2016). The plan is easy to understand, but the key is being consistent enough to reach the goals. Combining both influencer and 4DX has helped to develop this plan fully and provides understanding for all aspects of how to create and implement all “wildly important goals” in the future.

5 Stages of Change

1. Getting Clear

When creating a garden, it is crucial to prepare the soil before planting seeds. Stage one lays the foundational groundwork necessary to make the plan work. In stage one, our team will take time to create our wildly important goals (WIGS). Deciding on lead and lag measures is important at this stage to ensure that we make it to the lag measures. By establishing simple and frequent lead measures, educators will stay on course and achieve their goals. This stage is also where the team will plan and commit to meeting days and times and discuss how to create accountability. This is also a wonderful time to brainstorm challenges we may encounter in the next stages and how to address them.

2. Launch

In gardening, the first sprouts to appear are often the most exciting! It means growth has begun. Stage two is when we motivate the team to start off on the right foot. My plan is to have a kickoff Zoom meeting for all educators. Making it fun by having prizes and games will focus the energy and excitement. As a lead influencer in this project, I plan to stay highly involved, lead by example, and communicate consistently with the team while building trust.

3. Adoption

When seeds in a garden have sprouted and established plants are visible is when we start to believe our garden is successful and will be fruitful. Stage three is where everyone begins to realize that this plan is working, and mindsets begin to shift. The scoreboard is used to keep everyone motivated and aware of how close we are to reaching our goal. In this stage, previous resistors are starting to come around and enthusiasm has increased significantly. Collaboration is key to accountability at this stage, along with resisting the whirlwind by sticking to the plan.

4. Optimization

At this point in the process of gardening, you have plants that have established strong roots and your garden is on its way to success. You are invested in the growth and determined to do whatever it takes to help it reach its full potential. Stage four is where we begin to look for ways to optimize our WIGS. Staying engaged by encouraging all and celebrating successes is important. During this stage, the mindset of everyone has changed They are now ‘Playing to Win.’ Everyone is more engaged and purposeful in their work. Because of this, we will need to be open to their ideas and creativity since they will be looking for ways to increase performance.

5. Habits

After a bountiful harvest, you are now a true gardener! You know the steps to take to see success again in your next attempt. Stage five is where the principles of 4DX are ingrained in all participants. This is where we will celebrate accomplishments and focus on advancing our attempt to “move the middle” so we see more success in all. Restate that 4DX is now the process we will use for all future WIGS to check the team’s understanding and focus on creating our next set of WIGS.

“The 4 Disciplines work because they are based on principles, not practices.” ― Chris McChesney

4 Disciplines of Execution

Discipline 1 - Focus on the Wildly Important Goals (WIG)

Discipline one is focusing on the WIGS (wildly important goals). This discipline is to “focus on less so that your team can achieve more” (Mcchesney et al., 2016). Using the example of cultivating a garden, a farmer does not sow a bunch of different seeds into the same row or focus on growing a multitude of different crops on the same farm if they plan to market their yield. They usually focus on a specific agricultural area at a time. The same goes for a team in an organization. If the team focuses on too many goals at once, the likelihood is that it will experience failure in some, if not all, goals. When we try to focus on too many things at once focus is lost. This discipline creates a narrowed focus by defining one to three WIGS with clear finish lines only (Mcchesney et al., 2016). For our organization, we will focus on one WIG which is the creation and use of ePortfolios by all educators in the organization within a year from the start date. During stage one of the stages of change, the team will discuss, agree upon, and perfect this WIG.

Discipline 2 - Act on the Lead Measures

In the first discipline, we focused on creating a goal with a defined end date. The measures we use on the journey to that goal will determine if we are able to find success. Lead and lag measures are necessary. A lag measure is a destination or where we want to end up. The lead measures are predictable and influenceable measures which lead us to the WIG. In our examples of the farmer, they could use lead measures such as watering or fertilizing the plants a certain amount each week to get to the lag measure of a high yield. For our organization, we will focus on the lag measure of all educators using ePortfolios over the next twelve months and lead measures of weekly discussion boards, weekly workshops, and monthly surveys to gauge our level of achievement at regular intervals. Again, during stage one of the stages of change, the team will perfect and agree upon these measures.

Discipline 3 - Keep a Compelling Scoreboard

Discipline three focuses on engagement. Creating a compelling scoreboard for all to see is a way to get your team emotionally involved in the game. Kerry Patterson (2013) discusses how one of the four tactics that influencers use to help people love what they may otherwise hate is making a game out of the process. This gives the team the ability to see if they are winning or losing. A farmer would not just walk out into a field and try to determine if things were moving in the right direction. He or she would have charts or documented data to look at to be sure they are making progress. In the same way, our team motivation will increase as they move along the path by seeing the progress as it happens. My ideas included charting the number of educators participating in ePortfolio use throughout the weeks or months. As a basic example, a graphic similar to the one below can be used but will need to be updated with our specific goals and data. Creating a ‘Star of the Month’ by having educators vote on ePortfolios and smaller weekly prize drawings will offer incentives for staying on track. We will post the scoreboards in our newsletter and on the teacher app for everyone to see. An idea for the drawings may be basing them upon educators submitting a google form after reviewing a peer's ePortfolio and giving feedforward. This would provide not only a chance for growth and improvement for educators but would ensure collaboration and accountability throughout the process. The ideas in my chart will be up for discussion and reviewed in stage one of the stages of change to ensure they work for our set WIG.

Discipline 4 - Create a Cadence of Accountability

The final discipline is to determine what will create accountability for the team. The meeting time and days agreed upon in stage one of the stages of change will create the accountability that is needed to stay on task. My idea is to hold a 15-20 minute weekly meeting where the progress is reviewed, goals for the past were being discussed, and new goals are created for the upcoming week. This meeting should be motivational and something that our educators want to attend. It will be quick but rhythmic and consistent. In this discipline, educators can take ownership of their own personal weekly commitments and reset them at the end of each week. This short meeting will give a chance to discuss what commitments were or were not met and why. Doing so will prevent educators from being caught in the whirlwind and allow them to focus energy on the WIG. Team members will be more committed if they have ownership in the development of their commitments (Mcchesney et al., 2016).

“Think of the 4 Disciplines as the operating system of a computer—once it’s installed,

you can use it to run almost any strategy you choose,” ― Chris McChesney

The 4DX strategy I have presented above combines both the five strategies of change with the four disciplines of execution. This plan, along with my Influencer Strategy, will be used to create and implement the first wildly important goal in our organization. Using this process to change our current limited teacher profiles into ePortfolios will benefit all educators and the organization. Once following the four disciplines of execution strategy becomes a habit, we will see success in any WIG we decide to implement in the future. I am honored to bring this strategy to our organization and be a leader in a new process of motivation that will forever influence the way we approach change.

References

Grenny, J. (2013). Influencer : The new science of leading change. Mcgraw-Hill Education.

Mcchesney, C., Covey, S., & Huling, J. (2016). The 4 disciplines of execution : achieving your wildly important goals. Free Press.

Kimberly Purvis

Digital Learning Journey